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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Someone brought this guy to my attention last night, and I watched this video (7 minutes) again this morning.

One of the best ideas I've heard is to listen to videos of great salespeople and figure what they do.

Here is the video of Kenny Brooks. I never heard of him before this, but I'll be paying attention to him from this point forward. You will, too!

Here are more than seven (7) selling ideas I got while watching this video:

Enthusiasm is Key

Have Humorous 1-Liners

Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously

Give Convincing Demonstrations

Involve the Person You Want to Buy from You

Remind Them of the Benefits

Place the Product Directly in Their Hand

Ask Them to Buy - Assume They Will

There might be even more lessons that I should have learned, but these were the key for me. Unfortunately, I am NOWHERE nearly as funny as this guy. So I'm just going to do my best to help you learn. I'll leave it to Kenny Brooks to make you laugh.

1. Enthusiasm is Key

This guy says it from the outset. He has a "disease" called "enthusiasm." Then he backs it with an energetic presentation.

Most of us know this, but many of us have a hard time implementing this. Imagine how hard it must have been for Kenny Brooks (the salesman on the video) to get excited about trying to sell something similar to Windex for $36. Yet, he made it so that he seemed excited to present it to you.

How many of these "cleaning products" would someone else have sold if they just "knew" that they couldn't sell it?

How many people really want to listen to someone when they don't really have time?

Now, let's ask how many people want to listen to someone who is trying to get them to spend money that they think they don't have for a product that they weren't even thinking about spending money to buy (before the sales presentation)?

This guy BEGAN with a funny 1-liner. He made a comment about this taking only 60 seconds. He's quick "like Nestle" and "Your neighbor says that I remind him of Nicholas Cage, because I'm throwing him in 60 seconds."

He just keeps them coming throughout the entire presentation. I've heard people say that once you have people LAUGHING, you'll have people LISTENING.

Even if you're not naturally funny, you can memorize a few 1-liners and make them fit within your presentation.

They'll keep people entertained, which means that they won't slam shut the door on you...at least not as quickly.

3. Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously

In this video, Kenny Brooks is a black man in what appears to be a predominately white neighborhood.

Rather than "hide" behind his race and seeming embarrassed or apologetic, he embraces it. He makes a reference about the neighbors getting nervous, because a "black kid" is washing (a white family's) windows, and he does this several other times throughout his presentation.

I think that my personal favorite is when he talks about there being a a "special program" called H.B.O. Yeah, that's "Help a brother out."

This guy is clever, but he disarms people by taking that "elephant" in the room and turning it into an opportunity to make everyone laugh. Now, they can focus on what he is selling instead of who he is.

This is a great technique to make people like you. If you can laugh at yourself, people are less likely to be "mad" at you for being different from them. In fact, they'll suddenly like that difference; it makes them laugh. It's "not so bad" after all.

This can be applied to all sorts of things--not just race. Maybe you dress funny, or you might be a male selling something to a female. Maybe you have a handicap or a stuttering problem.

Take your difference, and learn to laugh at yourself about it. Your sales prospects will laugh with you...and be your allies--not your enemies.

4. Give Convincing Demonstrations

The greatest talk in the world won't convince too many people to take money from their wallet and hand it to you.

You need to DEMONSTRATE how great things will be for them.

Kenny Brooks shows this family how it cleans that nasty ring on the concrete caused by that clay plant pot just sitting on it for far too long. He sprays on his solution and takes a brush.

"Just like an argument, you move it back and forth" and that area of the concrete was looking just like new.

He gave several other demos, too, but I think that the one that got THIS family was the copper (or brass?) door handle. It went from "1979 to 2010."

Throughout Kenny's presentation, he kept asking them questions--even though they were mostly rhetorical and not meant to be answered.

His best example of involving them was when he asked, "Do you have running water?"

Of course, this family DOES have running water.

Kenny responded, "Then you QUALIFY to use this product," and gave them a "high five."

He kept doing this throughout the entire sales presentation.

6. Remind Them of the Benefits

Yeah, the features are great, and it's nice that this cleaning product is organic, but that is not what makes people respond with their wallet.

Besides the demonstrations--which were solid throughout his presentation--he also kept reminding them, "There's no need to panic, 'cause it's organic." When he said this, he was demonstrating that while this cleaning solution is POWERFUL, it is also color safe.

Most people know that bleach is powerful, too, but they're afraid of it, because it's so aggressive, especially on colors. Because this stuff is "organic," colors don't need to panic. He kept reminding them--POWERFUL and SAFE.

THAT is why they should care that his cleaning solution is organic--not because they're "supposed to" care about using organic products. They SHOULD care, because it BENEFITS them!

7. Place the Product Directly in Their Hand

"Here, hold onto this for me."

Kenny Brooks placed that bottle of cleaning solution in the sales prospect's hand, and he went on to demonstrate how to product cleaned.

When Kenny went to do his demo, he distracted his prospect's attention, but do you think Kenny EVER planned on touching that bottle--EVER AGAIN?

Plus, that sales prospect was FEELING that bottle--one step closer to ownership. He's one step closer to ownership of that cleaning solution that he's watching doing amazing things.

If you have a service instead of a product, let them experience that service--for free. Let them get used to feeling what it's like to have that for themselves--regularly.

8. Ask Them to Buy - Assume They Will

This is, by far, the toughest thing for most salespeople to do.

The best salespeople like this part the best, because THIS is when they get paid.

Most of us are too busy being afraid of offending people or looking foolish.

Did you notice that as soon as the prospect started to say he needed to get going, Kenny handed over the order form, and he ASSUMED that the prospect would sign it.

At this point, the prospect has to break the flow to say, "No." Most people don't really want to break the flow. Sometimes, they don't realize what's happening. Other people just don't like being confrontational.

Either way, ask them to buy, and take the steps to assume that they will.

I don't know whether I'll ever be as good a salesperson as Kenny Brooks, but I sure got reminded of some key sales basics. In fact, I probably learned some things that will put money in my pocket.

1 comment:

Hey there! Thank you for taking time to read my post and share your thoughts with me and my other readers. I'm always tickled when I get a non-SPAM comment. Honestly, sometimes I'm even okay with some borderline SPAM.

Let me know if you would like for me to address a topic by sending me an email at Chris@TheUltimateAnalyst.com.